Strangers
by bionic4ever
Summary: FitB2: Jaime must ask for help from someone who is still a stranger to her, when Steve disappears.
1. Chapter 1

**Strangers**

Chapter One

The knock on his open office door was so quiet, Oscar almost didn't hear it. Jaime stood in the doorway, looking tentative and frightened. Oscar realized that, to her, he was a virtual stranger. When an operation had failed to restore her memory, Jaime had undergone a type of hypnosis using sodium pentothal. It had been highly successful, with almost all of her memory returning in about 72 hours.

There had been several blank spots, though. She'd known nothing about her bionics or her connection to and work for the OSI. She'd discovered the bionics herself, by accident, and Steve had given her a full explanation, but for Jaime, the OSI remained uncharted territory. She knew Oscar was the Director, that he was Steve's boss and he'd been the one to ok her becoming bionic. The rest, they'd decided, could wait.

That was why Oscar was so surprised to see her in the office - without Steve. Jaime was thoroughly intimidated by a man of Oscar's stature within the government and, beyond a simple introduction, they hadn't had occasion to talk since before the failed surgery, two months earlier.

"Mr. Goldman...?" she ventured, still in the doorway.

Oscar rose from his desk with a warm and (he hoped) reassuring smile. "Come on in," he told her. "And I was always 'Oscar' to you before; 'Oscar' is still fine." He showed her to one of the cushy chairs by the window and Jaime sat down. It tugged hard on Oscar's heartstrings that she looked absolutely scared to death. "Can I get you some coffee?" he offered.

"Ok. Thank you."

Oscar wondered if she still drank it with cocoa, then went ahead and added a scoop to her mug. When he handed it to her, she took a good, long drink and he recognized that she looked and acted like she'd barely slept.

Jaime looked up at him and finally managed a smile. "How'd you know I like my coffee with - oh. Never mind. Sometimes I forget that when I don't remember someone, they still might know me."

"What can I do for you, Jaime?" he asked, taking a seat across from hers.

"I'm sorry about just barging in like this. I probably should've made an appointment, but -"

"Jaime, my door is always open to you, day or night. Remember that, ok?"

"Thank you." She took a deep breath. "Mr. Goldman - Oscar - Steve went to the hardware store yesterday, right after dinner, and he never came back. I figured he'd run into an old friend, or maybe had car trouble, but he never came home at all last night. I - I didn't know what to do..."

Oscar was gravely alarmed, but tried not to frighten Jaime further. "You did exactly the right thing, coming to me."

"Do you think the men who tried to take me from the hospital could've gotten Steve?"

"Two of them are locked up, but it's possible there were more," he acknowledged. "Whatever's happened, I _will_ get him back, Jaime."

"Did I...work for you, too?"

"Actually, you did. Do you remember that?"

Jaime shook her head. "Educated guess." She looked intently at Oscar's face and into his eyes and decided that - yes - she trusted him. "I wanna help you find Steve."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"I've been out of the hospital for over three weeks. My bionics are back up to full strength, and I've learned a lot about how to use them. And -"

"No, Jaime."

"I'm sorry," she said, suddenly finding her full voice, "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I **am** gonna look for Steve, even if I have to do it on my own. Wouldn't it be more efficient, not to mention safer, to let me do it on your team?"

Oscar sighed; some things never changed. "I'll make you a deal. Rudy just happens to be in the building, in his lab downstairs. You let him check you over while I get the rest of the teams going on this. Then if - and only if - Rudy ok's it, you and I will team up and join the search."

"You want me to work...with you?"

"I trained you the first time, with Steve's help. Do we have a deal?"

"We've got a deal, Oscar."

------

"You may as well let me come in," Jaime called to Rudy and Oscar from her seat at Callahan's desk, "Because I can hear you either way."

"Good to know she's got the old spunk back," Rudy chuckled.

"Jaime," Oscar said, smiling and motioning gallantly, "would you care to join us?" He waited until she was seated to continue. "Well, Doctor, how is our extremely headstrong patient?"

"I checked her out thoroughly; her body and bionics are in A-1 condition," Rudy answered.

"Can she handle this?"

"I'd say what she lacks in remembered experience, she more than makes up for in determination," he looked at Jaime, "and stubborn-ness."

------

"I've got teams checking all of this group's known residences," Oscar told Jaime as the big grey car pulled into traffic.

"So it is the same people who almost got me?"

"Very likely, yes. We're also checking for any word on the foreign market of...bionics up for sale."

"Ok." Jaime swallowed hard. She was determined to help Steve, but picturing him in pieces was more than she could bear. They'd begun to grow much closer in the three weeks she'd been staying in his guest room. "Oscar, we'll find him before it comes to that, right?"

"We'll certainly do our best. Right now, you and I are going to pay a visit to the men who grabbed you. It could get pretty rough -"

"Just tell me what you need me to do."

Oscar glanced in Jaime's direction. Would she be able to pull off what he was about to ask her to do?

------


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Jaime paced nervously in the tiny office next to the interrogation room where Oscar would bring the first of the two prisoners. She heard the door open, then close, and the guard locked it from the outside. (Oscar also had a key to unlock it from inside, if necessary, but no one needed to know that.) Once the guard had gone, Jaime slipped into the hallway and waited for her cue.

"...and I'm warning you, she's on a rampage -"

There it was. _This is for you, Steve._ With one good, solid kick, the door that used to open out into the hallway was in pieces on the floor of the interrogation room. Jaime stormed in and, in one motion, lifted the prisoner from his chair and slammed him into the wall - not hard enough to really hurt him, but he definitely felt it. She held him there, 12 inches from the floor, and glared at him.

"Where did your friends take Austin?" she demanded.

"Lady, you're insane! I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, I think you do. Unless you'd like to be in the same shape as the door, you're gonna tell me. Now!" Silence. Jaime gave him another little rap against the wall for emphasis. "I am not kidding!" Still, the man said nothing and began trying to kick Jaime in her knees. "Is that supposed to hurt?" She laughed contemptuously at him. "Do you have any idea what I could do to you?"

Oscar stood in the furthest corner from Jaime and the kidnapper, pressed against the wall in mock terror. He was suitably impressed.

Jaime gave the man another slam, a little harder this time. "Dammit - tell me where he is, or I'll snap you in half like a twig!"

"The old train depot...the abandoned one...in the basement," he gasped.

"That's better." She released him and let gravity take him down. "Let's go, Oscar." As they reached the doorway, she turned around. The prisoner was still on the floor, afraid to get up. Jaime glared at him again as she delivered a verbal parting shot: "Have a nice day."

------

"That was excellent work, Jaime," Oscar told her once they were on the way to the depot. "I'm really proud of you; Steve will be, too."

"We have to find him first."

"We're almost there. The other teams will meet us outside, and we'll swarm the building. Hopefully get all of 'em that way."

"And Steve," Jaime reminded him.

"Right." They pulled up behind the depot and Russ met them as they got out of the car.

"Everyone's in place," Russ told them. "We move in when you give the word. Hi, Jaime - welcome back."

"Thanks." She'd figure out who this stranger was later. "Let's go, Oscar; Steve might not have time to wait."

Oscar turned on his radio. "Units Seven and Eight, take the perimeters. One through Six, move in." He turned to Jaime. "You stay back until the building's been secured. I don't want you in the line of fire."

"Like hell!" Jaime took off for the entrance. The first two teams were already inside. "Federal Agents - don't move!" they ordered, and began herding the occupants out the door. Jaime quickly found the stairway and headed down. A guard with a gun whirled around, prepared to shoot her, but Jaime dove for his ankles, knocked him to the ground and stomped his weapon to dust. There was no one else in sight, and only one door on the far wall. She pulled it right off the hinges in her quest to find Steve.

She found him suspended from the ceiling by a chain that was wrapped around his wrists. His feet hung about three feet from the floor, and he appeared to be unconscious. Oscar and Russ came flying down the stairs, guns drawn. Russ stopped to handcuff the unconscious guard, and Oscar hurried to Jaime's side.

"Oscar, if I jump up and break the chain, can you help break his fall?" she asked.

Oscar smiled. "Go ahead. I was going to call for a bolt cutter, but this appears to be your show, Kiddo."

Jaime had him down in less than a heartbeat. As the medics and Rudy came running down the stairs, Steve began to slowly wake up. "Jaime?" he whispered, dazed. "They...got you, too?"

"No," she answered, bending down to kiss him, "_We_ got _them_."

"Actually, Pal," Oscar explained, "She carried this off pretty much single-handedly. Maybe with a little guidance along the way, most of which she ignored."

"Jaime," Rudy said, grinning as widely as everyone else, "I need to borrow Steve from you for a little while. I promise I'll return him as soon as I can."

"Ok if I ride in the chopper with him, Rudy?" she asked.

"I'd give her what she asks for Rudy," Oscar said, only half joking. "She's a whole lot tougher than she looks!"

------

Steve smiled at Jaime from his hospital bed. "So, they told me you took down an armed guard, man-handled a prisoner and annihilated a couple of doors. What'cha gonna do for an encore?"

"You'll find that out whenI get you home, Colonel," she said, kissing him softly. "And Rudy said that'll be tomorrow."

"Seriously -thank you. I was pretty much out of time there."

"Purely selfish, to tell the truth," sheanswered. "I'd do anything for the man I love." It was the first time she'd used that word since she'd gotten her memory back, and it felt pretty good. "I love you, Steve."

"I brought you a present," Oscar told them from the door, interrupting the moment. "Sorry for busting in, but you're supposed to be letting him rest, Young Lady." With a wicked grin, he handed Steve a video tape. "Thought you might like to see the new-and-improved-but-still-stubborn Jaime in action."

"Oscar...what is that?" Jaime asked warily.

"You did know the interrogation roomhad a security camera, didn't you?"

"You neglected to tell me that little detail. Can I see that for a second?"

"I think I'll give it directly to Steve," Oscar told her. "Pal, you've got a regular spitfire here; good luck taming this one."

Steve laughed. "The tame ones aren't any fun, Oscar - you know that."

------


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The next evening, Jaime and Steve sat together on Steve's porch, looking at the stars. They were both in pensive, somber moods, but for very different reasons. "Do you think Oscar'll ever let me work for him again?" Jaime asked.

"Why wouldn't he? Sweetheart, you were great."

"I was insubordinate, rude - I swore at him, Steve. And -"

Steve quieted her with a very long kiss, trying to delay what he knew he had to tell her, what they needed to talk about tonight. Jaime had grown fairly adept at reading him, though, and she knew something was on his mind. She felt she could go on kissing him forever, but she just _had_ to know.

"What's wrong?" She searched his face, but it gave no clue. His mood, though, was heavy, sad, almost morose.

"Jaime," he began, "Nothing's wrong, really. In fact, Rudy gave me some good news today - about you."

"Oh?"

"He said you're 100 percent fully recovered. You don't need a baby-sitter anymore."

"Oh." Now Jaime was sad, too. "You're evicting me from your guest room, then?"

"No! Not unless...you want to go?"

"Well, I have been wanting out of the guest room, but I don't really wanna go home. It's not my call, though; it's your house..."

Steve kissed her again, this time letting her feel all of the passion he'd been holding back for the 'right time'. She willingly melted into his arms and returned the kiss with equal vigor. Steve knew now that they were both on the same page.

Many minutes later, with both of them on the edge of hyperventilating, they paused to catch their breath. "Our moms always did say we should share," Steve ventured.

"This is true."

"Then, yes, I am officially evicting you from the guest room. And even though I know you're fully capable of doing it on your own, I'd love to help you move your things to the room down the hall."

"Can we do that tomorrow?" Jaime smiled. "I think we might find a better way to use our time tonight."

------

Jaime reported for her next check-up with Steve by her side, both of them with smiles wide enough to be seen from down the hall. They had news they were aching to share, and since they knew Oscar would turn up to hear how Jaime was doing, this was the perfect day. She had been out of the hospital now for exactly six weeks, to the day. Rudy and Oscar had both figured that she probably wouldn't have gone home, but were too polite to actually ask.

Jaime held her left hand behind her back while she talked with Rudy. Steve sat beside her, letting her be the one to spill the beans. "Whatever you're doing, keep it up," the doctor told her. "You're in the best shape of your life." Jaime looked at Steve and blushed. "By the way," he continued, "I saw that videotape. Nice work."

"You - saw it? How many copies did Oscar make?"

"Not too many," came the answer from the doorway. "Only a couple of dozen." Oscar had seen the ring, but decided to have some fun with them. He winked at Rudy, over Jaime's shoulder, and Rudy knew to follow his lead.

Now that Oscar and Rudy were both there, Steve moved closer to Jaime, and she began gesturing with her left hand as she spoke, bringing it down onto Rudy's desk a couple of times, as if for emphasis but really wanting them to notice what she was trying to show them. She grew more and more frustrated as the two men appeared to remain oblivious. Rudy finished with his summary of her condition, they made small talk for quite some time, and still, _no one noticed_! Exasperated, Jaime stood to go, and Steve began to follow her. She'd tell them another day, when they'd actually brought their brains with them.

"Oh, by the way," Oscar called after them. They turned back around. "Were either of you planning to tell us you're engaged, or are we supposed to keep pretending it's a secret?" He flashed a semi-evil grin. "Congratulations; both of you."

Jaime laughed and gave him a light, playful punch in the arm, and then a hug. Three weeks ago, this man had been a stranger to her, but now she knew he was a dear friend, and soon he'd also be a Best Man.

------


End file.
